Bring it back for the 12th placed club I say.

It's the natural order of things. Get rid of the rubbish and see if someone else can do better.

Goodness, Widnes got relegated for finishing 11th. How must they feel when clubs do even worse and stay up?

So let's give Widnes another chance. We'd still have a team in black & white and we'd still have a team from Hull. Everyone's happy.

Totally agree mate.

The standards of the competition have to improve and that means getting rid of the teams who are dragging the league down like FC.

Celtic & Salford are works in progress but there's evidence to suggest that FC drag every team above them down to their level - and that isn't good in terms of attracting sponsors & new spectators to the sport.

FFS this is just embarassing

While I agree with relegation, I wouldnt wish it on any team. KR fans should know how hard it is to take and how hard it is to climb back up afterwards.
Why would you want FC to be relegated? Surely its better for the city to have 2 SL teams (along with a Premiership footy team). Apart from anything else who would we all wind-up?

I love the fact that F.C. gets under your skin so much,it makes you talk drivel.

I think P&R should be the norm in any sport, no matter who gets the chop. I would like to think we will return to it one day as its killed the season below the play off zone.

FWIW, no matter how much the FC lot don't want us in SL and wish our demise upon us, I for one think two clubs from the city doing well is great and hope that FC do get their act together and join us in the top 4 for some real quality derby games (subject to the weather being perfect for them, of course)

Speaking for myself, I am pleased two teams from Hull are in S.L.
I would be lying if I say I am happy with our present predicament at the moment.

I think P & R should come back , the franchise was a bad idea , bring in Widnes & Fax .

Although I support it ,I don't think P&R will come back. The next round of franchises will be presumably for another 3 years and by then the lower tiers of the game may well be changed quite radically.

Although I do feel it should be the natural order of things, we tried P&R for umpteen years and what it most appeared to achieve was teams going bust.
Workington and Oldham Bears (remember them?) in the first couple of years for starters.

Can anyone really say that Cas would have blooded Westerman, Shenton, Huby and Boyle et al to level they have without fear of relegation?

Celtic; whether you agree with expansion in this way or not, they're drawing a very high calibre of player into their acedamy set up at the moment and would they really have bothered to spend this money on development without a three year licence?

We might well get another Clive Sullivan from that set up...

Has anyone on here seen Widnes play lately? They are awful, as are Fax at the minute.

It is very likely Widnes will finish 5th or 6th this year in the Championship, real Super League contenders eh

look at it another way guys

the next round of franchises

the teams come in from the nl1 and 2 are salary capped worse than what we are, something like 400k or such i seem to remember hearing somewhere

NOW REALLY CAN WE EXPECT TEAMS COMING FROM THAT CAP TO BE AYTHING OTHER THAN FODDER FOR EVERLY OTHER SL TEAM.

they would be better off setting a set target of x amount of points for a season or else the franchise gets pulled.

itshould be about improving the quality of the rugby in the top league not bringing in fodder for all

but your a Gateshull fan

Only on alternate Fridays for the little ladys benefit

Whatever

Come on, you know damn well that it would be a different team if they got a franchise, and currently they are the only ones who qualify. come on now off with those blue and white glass

It's nothing to do with the Fev thing Phil, I am being serious, they are miles off.

Anyone would strengthen their squad should they get promoted so you cant argue that. When games in hand have been played they will probably be the 5th or 6th best team at that level, the table does not lie according to Rovers fans



They are absolutely reliant on Big Steve and his cash. He has told them to go part time and cut wages cos he wont throw cash in like he did....what happened.....16 of the 24 players wanted to leave, at least 4 that I know personally have new clubs and are leaving next year becuse their salary has been slashed.

The RFL are supposed to be looking for clubs to be self sufficent, not reliant on one mans cash, that can be a disaster, see Oldham for examples of that.

The best team outside of Super League technically is probably Leigh except they are balls on the field

Fair comment,I think that they have missed Fletch

I imagine they would mkss him more if he was to leave

I'm sure I read somewhere that to apply for a SL franchise you just have to reach the GF or Rails Cup Final.
If this is the case it could certainly increase the number of clubs applying.

As for Widnes , they had a fairly dismal start IIRC - but the league is quite a level affair at the top 6-7 positions.

Fax have not been that consistent , and I think they were 'bigging' up their performance against Cas in light of the alleged cash problems at Celtic.

I'll ask him on Wednesday

And only really hit form with a load of Loanee's in the side

Yeah you are right mate, although I should point out Fev bashed them with the loanees in and were not playing very well themselves

The only way a return to P&R would be workable, IMO, is if the income and quality gaps between SL and the championship is narrowed quite dramatically. Realistically, this going to mean improving the championship at the expense of SL (giving them a chunk of Sky cash, enabling them to compete for SL standard players). I would not be entirely against this sort of 'rebalancing', though it'd be swimming against the tide a bit and there'd be plenty of negative consequences - more players going to Union, a drop in the quality of SL and, arguably, therefore entertainment. Stadium improvements would likely be deprioritized too.

More positively it could breath life back into some moribund clubs and give back 'the dream' to their fans. Challenge cup would be more interesting, earlier also.

Gateshull should be kicked out in my opinion , what do they bring to the game?.

Get a decent team like Widnes in.